Winter time at Hogwarts
by KileeWhats
Summary: Winter is a true Slytherin and proud of it. She is cunning, cold and calculating and is an expert at making money- all before she is eleven years old, but her first year at Hogwarts somewhat complicates her life as she has to deal with bullying Gryffindors, an interfering Umbridge and personal problems at home. Please review. I'm still learning to write and would love some advice.
1. Winter arrives at Hogwarts

Chapter 1

"Have you done it yet?" Winter Tempest hissed, leaning over her friend Jenny Gray to peer at the flickering blue screen in front of them.

"Not yet," June hissed, adjusting her thick glasses," it's still loading."

"Computers are so slow," Winter muttered impatiently," I bet I could make it go much faster." She leaned over and touched the screen and the screen and instantly a bar flashed up on the screen, "Finished."

"Cool," Jenny was impressed, but not particularly alarmed, for she had seen displays like this from Winter before," but aren't you supposed to keep your powers a secret."

" Only when I start school," Winter shrugged and moved to the door of the darkened headmaster's office that they had broken into, peering up and down the corridor for any signs of security," unfortunately that should be any day now."

"Unfortunately?" Jenny asked, disbelief in her voice," I'd give anything to go to a Wizard school and get all sorts of powers and things, it'd be amazing!"

"We don't "get" the powers any more than you "get" your talent for hacking," Winter nodded toward the Headmaster's computer," we're born with them."

"Same difference," Jenny replied, then leaned forward suddenly," Hey! We're in!"

A light lit up in Jenny's eyes as her fingers moved deftly over the keyboards. Winter grinned as she watched her friend deftly hack into the records and alter her grades, changing her status from a failure to a very good student indeed. Jenny might not have magical powers like she did, but her talent with all sorts of technology, not to mention her general nerve more than made up for it, in Winter's opinion. Not many eleven year olds would have the guts or the ability to sneak into their Headmaster's office and hack into the system to alter their grades. Life with Jenny as a friend was always exciting. Of course, Winter had helped, too, and had alerted Jenny to the security guard's presence. It had been Jenny, however, who had stolen the alarm code, picked the locks on the window and had unlocked the Headmaster's door, not to mention hacked into the computer. Winter privately thought that if any wizards thought that Muggles-non magical people-were stupid, they would have quite a shock if they met Jenny.

"You haven't changed your history mark," Winter pointed out, raising her eyebrows.

" I'm rubbish at history," Jenny replied," I can achieve all the other marks I've set if I work hard enough now that my family's settled down again, but I'll never do well in History! Never!"

"You make that sound like a vow!" Winter grinned, then jumped as she heard a hoot at the window.

"An owl!" Winter exclaimed, forgetting to keep her voice down," how did it find me here?"

" Maybe it watched us when we broke in here," Jenny did not seem particularly concerned," okay, I'm done. Let's go."

As Jenny stood up, Winter moved to the window and took the letter that the owl was holding. She laughed aloud." It's my Hogwarts letter!" she exclaimed.

Jenny laughed, too." You were just talking about that! Still, we'd better get out of here!"

When it came to burglary, Jenny was really the expert, but Winter had one advantage and that was an acute sixth sense and she sensed the security guard coming around the passage before he came. In a second, she had shut the office door and she and Jenny crouched low, holding their breath as they saw the silhouette of the guard outlined in the glass of the door. For a few seconds he paused, then the light of his torch began to die away and Winter breathed again.

"Thanks," Jenny breathed, when the guard had disappeared," I had no idea he was coming."

The two girls made their way out of the school, making sure to fasten all doors and windows to leave no trace of intruders' presence. As Winter scrambled over the school gate, she fervently wished that her powers were more well developed and that she could levitate herself over the fence, but, as much as she willed herself to float as she sweated and gasped and cut her hand on the wire. Her body did grow slightly lighter, but she did not get anywhere near levitation. Winter often grew frustrated with the limitations to her powers. Her father had told her over and over again that she should not expect too much, that she would only really grow more powerful when she started school and that it was rare for young witches and wizards to have any control of their powers. Winter mostly ignored these lectures and would continue to try develop magic in herself, but she had not got very far.

Winter was first over the fence and Jenny followed. To Winter's slight annoyance, Jenny was considerably less out of breath than she was, and she had used magic! She supposed that underdeveloped magic was no substitute for exercise when it came to fence-climbing.

"I'd better go home," she told Jenny," it's late. My parents don't like it when I'm late and it's past midnight."

" Sure," Jenny waved goodbye and headed down the street, while Winter headed in the opposite direction to the wood that bordered the town. Although a great many Muggle children had explored these woods and thought they knew every bit of it, none of them would have been able to know that they had only seen a small part of it, for there was another wood behind the one the Muggles saw, a large, highly magical wood that surrounded a large, dark mansion.

Winter hurried down the path, glancing nervously between the trees. There were supposed to be protective enchantments on the path, but she had known her father to remove them before then, whenever she came home too late at night in the hope that one or two dark creature attacks would discourage her from her night time wanderings.

Winter wished she had a wand as she headed down the path, knowing that there would be little that she would be able to do should a creature attack and there were many dangerous creatures in this wood. Winter could move surprisingly fast for her age, even when she was not running and it was not long before she was heading up the black flight of steps that led to the front door, which was guarded by a pair of hideous gargoyles that Winter knew would attack any intruder. Not that there had been an intruder at the Tempest Mansions for years. There had not even been any visitors for a long time.

Winter's father was still awake and sitting in the drawing room when Winter entered. He was reading a book, most likely on the dark arts, Winter thought, seeing some of the gruesome pictures from over his shoulder.

"Where've you been?" he asked , without looking up at her.

"Out, helping Jenny," Winter replied.

"That Muggle girl?" Mr Tempest asked," the one who's a bigger trouble maker than you?"

"Yeah," Winter replied," that's the one. We broke into the school and changed her grades so she can get into a better school next year. It was her idea."

" Impressive," Mr Tempest looked up," I don't generally like Muggles, but that that girl certainly is cleverer than most of them. Still, I don't like you taking risks like that. What if you'd been caught? Having you in a Muggle police station would certainly have been an inconvenience to your mother and me."

"It was really low risk," Winter argued," schools are hardly high security institutions. Oh, I got my Hogwarts letter while I was there."

"Really!" Mr Tempest sat up, looking interested for the first time since the conversation started," that's wonderful! Let me see!" He snatched the letters from Winter and looked at them.

"We'll make a trip to Diagon Alley tomorrow," he said, after looking down the list," I must tell your mother!" he hurried to their bedroom.

As Winter changed into her nightclothes, she caught sight of her face in her bedroom mirror. She was well named, with her pitch black hair hanging about her gaunt, white face. However, her eyes were so dark that they were almost black. She stared at herself for a few minutes, thinking that soon she would start a new phase in her life.

Winter felt a rush of excitement as she lay in her bed. She had been to Diagon Alley before, of course, but not for anything this exciting and it was a long time before she fell asleep.

Winter's father talked more than usual as he and Winter took the Knight Bus- a wizard bus- to London. Her mother preferred to stay at home and attend to her stockpile of smuggled goods. She was a smuggler and poacher by trade.

"Your cousin, Marcus is captain of the Slytherin team," he said," but if you ever meet him, be careful of him. He's a bit of a bully."

" I'll remember," Winter replied as they entered the Leaky Cauldron. Winter's father opened the entrance to Diagon Alley that lay behind the Leaky Cauldron and they stepped onto the cobbled street that was lined with all sorts of shops.

"Gringotts first," Mr Tempest indicated the tall white bank that towered over the street," you can't get anything without money."

Winter never liked Gringotts bank, mostly because of the cart ride that had to be taken to get to the vaults. The ride was wild and full of twists and turns and it always made her feel rather ill and it always frustrated her that, no matter how hard she tried, she could never memorise the route the cart took as it sped along its track.

However, she soon forgot about Gringotts as she headed to Ollivanders, the wand shop. She had been desperately looking forward to getting a wand, although she would not be allowed to use it at home. She knew that her father disliked these regulations, too, but he thought it too high- risk for her to break this particular rule.

Winter did not have to wait long in Ollivanders before an old man with silvery eyes emerged from behind the dusty shelves.

"I'm Winter Tempest," Winter kept her voice low, almost by instinct.

"Ah yes," there was something rather cold about Ollivander's manner to her and to her father. Winter was used to this, however, for her family had a rather bad reputation as bullies, back stabbers, liars and even murderers.

Ollivander did not speak as he pulled out a measuring tape which began to measure her of its own accord, while he disappeared behind the shelves again. After a while, he returned with an armful of boxes and she began to try out wands, waving each one in turn, but nothing happened. Ollivander began to bring out more wands, which Winter waved. She tried again and again. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her father stirring impatiently. She knew that he was worried that no wand would be found for her and that perhaps the letter had been a mistake after all.

"Try this one," Ollivander held out yet another wand," It's Acacia wood with Phoenix tail feathers, twelve inches, smooth and rather rigid."

As Ollivander handed Winter the wand, a warmth spread through her fingers and, as she waved the wand, it left a trail of black flame in its path.

" I haven't seen that before," Mr Ollivander commented, seeming both impressed and repelled," there's something dark about you."

"Besides my hair?" Winter asked and her father grinned.

"Don't be rude," he said, although he seemed pleased," how much?" He asked Ollivander.

" Twenty galleons," Mr Ollivander replied," that Phoenix I got the tale feather from was particularly difficult to catch and nearly pecked my eyes out when I succeeded. It burst into flame in my hands just to spite me, I think."

"That sounds like my girl," Mr Tempest seemed even happier.

"Hmmm," was all Mr Ollivander said in reply.

Winter looked down with some pride at her wand, for she sensed that it was special. Of course, she thought, I suppose everyone thinks that their wand is special.

Winter was just as eager to get to Flourish and Blots, the Wizard bookshop and she bought a great deal more books than the list required, many of them aimed at older people than her, but her father was perfectly willing to pay for them. "It never hurts to be prepared," he said as he walked with Winter out the shop. After the wand and the books, Winter found getting her robes fitted to be rather boring and she was glad when it was finished, but she enjoyed the visit to the Apothecary where her father explained to her about many of the potion ingredients she found there.

"What House do you think I'll be in, dad?" Winter asked her father, referring to the four school houses that Hogwarts students were sorted into at the beginning of their first year. She knew that the houses were Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin and that Gryffindor was where the so-called brave students went to, Ravenclaw was for the clever children, Hufflepuff for the hardworking and loyal and Slytherin for the cunning and ambitious, but only if they were pure blood or half blood. Apparently, Muggle borns were not allowed in Slytherin.

"One never knows," Winter's father shrugged," I was in Ravenclaw and I was sure I would be in Slytherin. I mean, I wasn't stupid, but I was pureblood, I was cunning and not short of ambition. I'd made it my goal to become Minister for Magic and lift some of these ridiculous restrictions, especially those on underage wizards. I mean, there's no reason why young wizards shouldn't practice magic in Muggle areas just so long as they do it in quiet places where they won't be seen."

"Why didn't you follow through with it?" Winter asked, surprised that her father would give up on such a goal, especially as he had the means to achieve it. He always seemed to have the means to achieve anything, although they were rarely legal means.

Her father shrugged," It didn't seem worth it after a while. I was becoming rich and powerful enough as it was and I met your mother and fell in love. Now that was a surprise, that I should ever fall in love," he chuckled to himself," still, I'm not sorry things turned out the way they did."

"What house was mother in?" Winter asked.

"Ravenclaw," Mr Tempest replied," but in her case it's not surprising. She was the top student in the school from her third year onward."

Winter was surprised to hear this, for she had never got the impression that her mother was particularly clever, for she see was very quiet and only seemed talented where smuggling dragon eggs out of Romania seemed concerned.

The last thing Winter bought was a pet, a large, barn owl who was extremely intelligent, at least according to the witch behind the counter. The owl seemed to take an instant liking to Winter and she decided to call him Nocturnus.

Winter could barely wait for September to come. She spent most of her time reading her books and memorising spells, as well as practicing wand movements with a stick. She was sure that it would not be a problem if she were to use magic. After all, both her parents were wizards and the mansion was magically hidden from Muggles, but her father insisted that she at least keep to these rules. Winter supposed that the recent delivery of several dark objects to the Mansion had made her father a bit more wary of the Ministry. Winter's father did not actively practice the Dark Arts, but he studied them keenly and new many dark spells. It was his firm belief that all magic could be dark if used in certain ways and that it was hypocritical of wizards to separate the types.

" A stunning spell could kill someone," he had once moaned to his wife, who listened patiently," if they get stunned and fall into water, or if they fall from a great height and yet the Ministry doesn't call stunning spells dark, do they?"

The family got to King's Cross station very early on the morning that the train was due to leave. As usual, her mother remained in the house, but she did seem genuinely sorry, in her own way, to see Winter going away.

Mr Tempest walked Winter through the barrier that separated platforms nine and ten and they emerged onto platform nine and three quarters, where the Hogwarts Express was already waiting. Most of the wizards and witches waiting on the platform muttered as they past and, out of the corner of her eye, she saw one of a pair of red haired twins give her father the finger. She thought this was a bit unfair as her father had not done anything to provoke them, but she ignored them. She was sure that they must be members of the Weasley family. Her parents had never had much to do with them, but the fact that many of her other relatives were dark wizards and even Death-Eaters, supporters of Lord Voldemort, the most powerful, evil dark wizard of the time and that made her entire family evil in the eyes of the Weasleys. Soon after, the other twin bumped into her very hard and she stumbled. She knew full well that the boy had knocked her on purpose. In revenge, she plunged her hand into the boys pockets as she fell against him and felt several coins and a chocolate frog, which she took with her as she withdrew her hand.

"Oops," the boy grinned a wicked grin," didn't see you."

Mr Tempest had opened his mouth to shout angrily at the boy, but seeing Winter's satisfied face, he stopped and looked down at her, puzzled. As the boy rejoined his twin, seemingly very pleased with himself, Winter grinned and opened her hand, showing her father the boy's money and chocolate frog. Her father grinned, too.

"Where did you learn to pick pocket?" he asked, very pleased.

"Jenny," Winter shrugged.

"You know, I get more impressed by that girl every day," Mr Tempest commented. Winter had wished that Jenny could have come with them to the platform, but Mr Tempest had thought it inadvisable and they had said good bye before Winter had left for Hogwarts. Jenny had been sad that Winter was going away, but they had agreed that they would still write. Indeed, they had spent a few hours devising and memorising a basic code that they had found in a children's book on spies and that would not fool a Muggle for a minute but that most wizards would not discover in ten years, unless the wizard happened to be Muggle born and to know about Muggle children's codes.

Winter found an empty compartment and settled down, pulling out a book on curses as she waited for the train to leave. However, even as she read, she was listening hard to the conversation all around her. She could not help put freeze as she heard the name Harry Potter. Glancing sideways out of the window, she saw a few people talking and, nearby them, was a skinny boy with black hair, green eyes and a scar on his forehead.

The name Harry Potter was familiar to her, for the Dark Lord Voldemort had either vanished or died after he had attacked Harry as a baby, eleven years ago, and the wizard world had been released from Voldemort's grip and there had been a great deal of celebration. There had been a great deal of speculation and rumours about why Harry had not died and why Voldemort had vanished and Winter was as curious as everyone else, although she was not particularly impressed. Harry would have been about a year old at the time and so, she thought, it was unlikely that he could have done anything himself. He could have been born with some power, she supposed, but even then, it was not power he had earned. It was just a form of luck. She supposed that some sort of protective enchantment could have been placed on him, although she could not think of anything that could protect one from a killing curse. To make matters more complicated, this Harry Potter, as well as the Headmaster of Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore, was insisting that Voldemort had returned and was plotting to take over again, while the Ministry of Magic insisted that this was all lies and that Harry Potter was simply seeking attention and that Dumbledore was mad. Personally, Winter was inclined to believe Harry Potter simply because she did not trust the Ministry. She had not forgotten her grandfather, Silvius who had been bitten by a werewolf, who had been accused of the murder of a wizard who had simply been in the same town, despite the fact that the wounds had been more like ragged slash wounds. However, Silvius had been hunted for years and his guilt had been firmly established in many people's minds before the truth had emerged that a Muggle robber had simply sneaked up behind the wizard and, before he could reach for his wand, had slashed him with a serrated knife over and over again. It had been the Muggle police who had caught the murderer. The Ministry had hushed the entire incident up, of course, not wanting to admit that a wizard could be killed by a Muggle so many years after the persecutions and had even continued to lay the blame on Silvius until Silvius's brother, Serpend, who had been working in the Ministry and had also helped his brother escape had found out the truth and threatened to go public with it if Silvius was not left alone.

With Winter having grown up with stories like these, it was understandable that she had developed a deep set mistrust of officials of all kinds.

Winter continued to stare at Harry Potter for a few minutes, before turning back to her book.

As time passed, more people began to filter onto the train and Winter knew that she would not be in an empty compartment for long. Sure enough, it was not long before a blonde boy appeared at the compartment door, flanked by two larger boys both of whom looked extremely menacing. Winter knew at once who this boy was. He could only be Draco Malfoy, son of Lucius Malfoy, for he was the very image of his father. Winter knew that her father's family was distantly related to the Malfoys, but it was not a connection that either family was proud of. The Malfoys considered the Tempests "blood traitors" because of the large number of marriages to Muggle borns and even Muggles in the family. The Tempests considered the Malfoys a bunch of arrogant, slimy, self important idiots.

Winter pretended to be reading her book as she watched Malfoy out of the corner of her eye, not missing the shining, silver Prefects badge on his badge. She would have to be careful.

" I think we'll take this compartment," Draco said, looking around," yes, this will do. You!" he turned to Winter," get out, you little brat!"

Winter had been making mental plans from the moment she had seen Malfoy and she had been reaching into her pocket as he looked around the compartment.

As Winter stood up to leave, she opened the tiny bottle that she had withdrawn from her pocket and tipped a drop of bright red liquid onto the ground. At once, an overpowering stench filled the compartment and even Winter began to cough.

"On second thought," Draco, who had not seen the bottle, choked," I think we'll find another one." The boys retreated from the compartment, their eyes watering and Winter withdrew another slightly larger bottle out of her pocket and poured two drops on the ground and the smell cleared up instantly. She returned to her seat, satisfied at the results of her potions that she had developed herself, when she was nine, after playing around in her mother's green house and accidently discovering how the sap of one plant had instantly made the smell of the dragon dung fertilizer disappear.

She felt a flood of excitement as the train began to pull out of the station and soon turned her attention to the scenery outside, trying to peer into all the gardens and houses that the train passed. She was not much bothered by the incident with Draco Malfoy, for she had long since prepared herself for the prospect of bullying.

After what seemed like several hours, a witch appeared pushing a trolley that was filled with sweets and Winter bought several chocolate frogs, more for the cards than for the chocolate.

The journey passed without incident as the sky grew dark. Winter was not sure how long the journey would take, so she changed into her robes when the lamps on the train were lit.

When the train slowed down and eventually stopped, Winter joined the crowd on the platform where she heard a woman's voice calling," First years this way! First years this way, please!"

She saw an elderly woman with short grey hair waving to the crowd and Winter headed in her direction, where a number of first years were gathering by a group of small boats.

"No more than four to a boat, please!" the short haired woman said sharply and the first years began to climb into the boats, which began to sail across the smooth, still lake. While the rest of the first years all gazed up at the caste when it came into view above them, Winter's eyes were drawn to waters of the lake and she wondered what sort of creatures lived below it. Her mother, who had spent a great deal of time in the lake as a student, gathering various plants to study(without the teacher's knowledge) had told her of a giant squid and of creatures called grindylows who would often attack and strangle unwary bathers, but Winter was sure there were more creatures in the depths. She briefly wondered if there were Merpeople around, but then, she supposed, if there were, one was not likely to be able to find them.

The boat reached the other end of the lake and the first years clambered up a steep slope until they came to the doors of the castle. The woman who was guiding them knocked three times on the doors, which swung open onto an enormous entrance hall, where they saw a tall, stern looking, elderly witch who was evidently waiting for them. Winter remembered her father saying that it was usually Professor McGonagall, the transfiguration teacher who greeted the first years.

After waiting for some time in a side chamber, the first years were led through a pair of wide double doors and into the Great Hall, where the rest of the school was already assembled, sitting in their house tables. Winter immediately cast her eyes over the staff table, where she spotted the short haired woman who had taken them across the lake, a tiny wizard who Winter was sure was Professor Flitwick, the charms teacher and she saw the Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, but her eyes paused at a woman who she could not place. The woman was very short and dressed in what Winter considered an obscene amount of pink, including a very fluffy cardigan. Winter could not remember her father ever describing a teacher like this and she could only assume that she was a new teacher. There was something distinctly irritating about the woman's appearance, something that went deeper than the bow on her head or the sickly pink cardigan, there was something deeper. Winter twitched slightly as she gazed at the woman. There was definitely something nasty about her, although Winter could not say why she felt that way. However, Winter fairly often had intuitions about people, about what they were like and whether they were hiding things or not and she was seldom wrong, so she decided to pay full attention to her instincts that this woman would mean trouble for her.

Winter turned her attention away from the woman to Professor McGonagall, who had just placed a large, battered had on a stool in front of the students. A rip near the brim of the hat opened and the hat began to sing a sort of song. Winter was prepared for this, for her father had told her about the Sorting Hat's songs, but many of the other students were staring, amazed or terrified or both.

Winter only half listened to the song which described the four houses and warned the school about inter-house unity and how important it was for the houses to work together. Winter privately thought this highly unlikely, for, from what she knew of people, most people were tribal by nature. They looked after their own group and could not care about anyone else.

One by one the first years were called up in alphabetical order to go forward and sit upon the stool and place the hat upon their heads, when the hat would shout the names of the houses in turn. Winter had to wait quite a while before Professor McGonagall called out "Tempest, Winter!"

Winter moved forward and placed the hat on her head.

"Hmm," the hat said," tough choice. Ravenclaw or Slytherin? You've got an almost unlimited amount of both cunning and general intelligence. You seem equally balanced between the two. Ravenclaw or Slytherin?"

"Oh, get on with it," Winter thought impatiently.

"SLYTHERIN!" the hat called.

The hat shouted out the last word to the entire hall. The students at the Slytherin table clapped hard, but not hard enough to drown out the booing coming from the other houses, especially from the Gryffindor table. Winter was not surprised. All the first years sorted into Slytherin house had been booed, although never loud enough to warrant the teachers' attention. Winter did not particularly care, for she was well aware that Slytherin was not a popular house, but Winter had always been perfectly comfortable as an outcast.

Winter wore an almost friendly expression as she shook Draco Malfoys hand as she was welcomed to the table. She felt rather contemptuous of him, but she knew better than to get on the wrong side of him if she could avoid it. However, she did try take a seat as far away from him as possible, taking a seat between two other first year girls.

At the staff table, Dumbledore had stood up and welcomed the school."There is a time for speech making," he said," but this is not it. Tuck in."

As he said the last few words, food appeared on the previously empty plates. It was such a large amount of food that Winter could not help but feel slightly revolted at the thought of all the waste of the left- overs, for it would surely be too much food for the school. However, this thought did not stop her piling her plate with food.

All around her, the children began to talk as they ate. The first years, especially, were eager to get to know each other and there was great talk, mostly about their families. Although most of the students seemed to come from pure blood families, there were more than a few half bloods at the table, too, including one of the students who sat next to Winter. Like Winter, her skin was very pale, but her hair was pale blonde and her eyes were pale blue.

"I saw you on the station," the girl turned to Winter," those red haired twins were giving you a hard time."

"Yeah, their family doesn't like mine very much," Winter casually replied.

"Oh, what family are you from?" the girl asked.

"The Tempests," Winter replied," We're not a very well known family. I'm Winter Tempest."

"I'm Annabel Lee Anderson," the girl replied in a thick Scandinavian accent," Anna for short. My father was a Muggle artist, but my mother is a witch. She's related to the Ollivanders. The wand makers. She's a wand maker, too. We lived in Sweden until last year."

"What's it like there?" Winter asked.

"Beautiful," Anna answered," at least where we lived, up in the mountains. My father loved that sort of wild, slightly barren environment. It gave him a lot of inspiration for his poetry and his stories."

" What happened to him?" Winter asked, noticing that Anna spoke of her father in the past tense.

"He died," Anna spoke quite calmly," in an accident. He had gone down to the city to go to his publishers and he got hit by a car as he crossed the street. That's why we came to England, to stay with my mother's family." She looked very sad, but kept calm.

"Oh, I'm sorry about your father," Winter meant it," so, did your mother make your wand?"

"Yeah," Anna drew out her wand," it's made of blackthorn wood with dragon heart string," she showed Winter her wand, which was a pale, silvery colour and quite long, with spiral decorations.

"It's very pretty," Winter drew out her own plain, dark wand," nothing like mine, but I was told that mine was very unusual. It's Acacia with phoenix tail feathers. Apparently the phoenix was very aggressive."

"That is unusual," Anna looked closely at the wand," but I suppose any bird would be aggressive if you try to rip out its tail feathers."

" Very true, but he made it sound like there was something sinister with the wand or something, although I don't suppose the black flame that came out of it when I tried it out didn't improve his opinion."

"Black flame?" Anna asked," that's fascinating-"

At that moment, Dumbledore stood up and began to speak, giving out announcements. Winter discovered that the woman who had taken the first years across the lake was Professor Grubblyplank , the care of magical creatures teacher and that the woman dressed in pink was Professor Umbridge, who would be the defence against the dark arts teacher. Winter clenched her fists when she heard the name Umbridge, for she knew that Umbridge worked at the Ministry of Magic. Winter frowned, wondering why anyone from the Ministry would be teaching at Hogwarts.

Anna noticed Winter's expression and leaned closer, whispering," what's wrong?"

" That woman works for our Ministry," Winter whispered," she shouldn't be here."

In front of the students, Dumbledore continued to speak." Quidditch try outs will be held-"

At this moment, Dumbledore was interrupted by a high pitched little cough from Umbridge."Thank you, Headmaster, for those kind words of welcome," she spoke in a high pitched, simpering sort of voice. She coughed again and continued," Well, it's lovely to be back at Hogwarts, I must say, and to see such happy little faces smiling up at me!"

It was Anna's turn to clench her fists.

" I am very much looking forward to getting to know you all and I'm sure we'll be very good friends."

Winter had raised her eye brows as she stared at Umbridge.

Umbridge continued," The Ministry of Magic has always considered the education of young witches and wizards to be of vital importance. The rare gifts with which you were born may come to nothing if not nurtured and honed by careful instruction. The ancient skills unique to the wizarding community must be passed down the generations lest we lose them forever..." her speech continued like this for what felt like a long time and many of the students looked away from her and began to talk and whisper amongst themselves, but Winter continued to listen, for she had made up her mind to be wary of Umbridge and, sure enough, as Winter listened, she began to pick up another meaning under the words. Umbridge was warning the school, in her own way, that the Ministry was displeased with the way things were being run at Hogwarts and that soon it would be imposing its own standards on the school. Winter wondered if the fighting between Dumbledore and the Ministry was anything to do with this sudden concern about educational standards.

Winter could not help but note that none of the teachers seemed very enthusiastic about having Umbridge around and she took this as a good sign.

When the feast had ended, Draco Malfoy and another Prefect, Pansy Parkinson, called for the first years to follow them and led the crowd to the dungeons, where they came up to a blank stretch of wall.

"The password to the common room for the next fort night is Salazar," Draco Malfoy announced to the first years," after that time it will changed, but you will be told when it does. Follow me."

As he had said the word "Salazar" the wall had split in two and opened to reveal a long, low ceilinged room that was lit with greenish lamps suspended above the student's heads and the walls were rough stone. Not even the fire in the grate could quite break through the cold atmosphere of the room. There were many low backed sofas situated around the room, most of them by the fire. Some were black and some were dark green and the cupboards, too, were made of a dark wood. Winter could see silhouettes of what looked like fish floating by the arched windows and she presumed the room extended into the lake. She could also hear the sound of swirling water from somewhere outside the room. Several skulls were perched on top of cupboards and tapestries lined the walls. All in all there was something mysterious, but also, in Winter's opinion, something more relaxing about the room. She had never much appreciated brightness and warmth. Light tended to hurt her eyes and heat was harsh on her skin.

The girls and were directed through a door at the far end of the room where they found their dormitory. The four poster beds were hung with curtains of green and silver and were extremely comfortable.

"At last, bedtime!" Anna yawned, sinking onto a bed next to the one Winter had chosen," I'm exhausted!"

"Me, too," Winter replied, her eyes beginning to close. Normally, Winter took a long time to get to sleep, but as she lay on her bed down in the dungeons, she fell asleep almost at once.


	2. Winter Vs Umbridge

Winter awoke early the next morning. Although a lingering tiredness still hung over her from the previous day, she was happy enough as she dressed into her robes. She waited for Anna before heading to the common room, for she did not think it wise to try and find her way back to The Great Hall on her own on her first full day at the school.

Winter had always had a good sense of direction and, even on her way to the dormitory the previous night, she had made a rough map of the directions in her head of the direction to take, using the patterns on the floor and markings on the walls as guides rather than the portraits or suits of armour, all of which moved about, according to her father. She had not seen the suit of armours move, but she had seen the moving, talking portraits for herself.

Winter and Anna made good progress at first as they made their way through the dungeons until Winter came to a wide passage way that seemed to open on some sort of chamber. Winter paused, sensing some sort of danger ahead and, crouching in the shadows, she pulled Anna down as well and the girls moved forward as silently as possible.

At first, the chamber appeared to be empty, but after a while, Winter's sharp eyes caught sight of two ink bottles floating high above the ground and she knew at once that Peeves the poltergeist must be planning to drop the ink bottles on the heads of the first students to pass that way. The first years had been warned about Peeves the previous night, before they went to bed.

Winter nudged Anna and pointed to the bottles and, to Winter's surprise, Anna grinned and pointed her wand at the bottles. Immediately, one of the bottles burst, showering the floor in ink and shards of glass, closely followed by the second one. Peeves cursed violently and swooped off, fortunately in the opposite direction from Winter and Anna.

"I've always been good at wrecking stuff," Anna grinned," I practiced enough on the Hogwarts Express."

"Well, that was amazing!" Winter beamed," you sure spoilt Peeves's day!"

Anna looked rather proud and the two moved forward in high spirits, but, just as they made their way up a flight of steps, Winter felt herself trip and fall hard back down the stairs. Even as she fell, she heard a voice sneer," Well, aren't the Slytherin first years a clumsy lot, George?" Winter recognized the voice of one of the Weasley twins. She felt a surge of anger and immediately thought through all the curses and hexes she had studied at home and, by the time she hit the bottom of the stairs, she had formed an idea for vengeance.

Looking up and seeing that the twins had turned their backs, she pulled out her wand and whispered an incantation as softly as she could so the twins would not hear her. At first nothing happened, so Winter whispered again, even faster, concentrating harder. A faint green vapour rose from each of the twins just as they turned the corner, and then faded away into nothingness. Winter grinned broadly.

"What did you do?" Anna asked, looking curious.

"Oh, just a spell I've read about," Winter replied," it makes a person stink and I mean really stink. What's better is that the people themselves can't smell anything and it can't wash off for a week. There, it must have started to work now."

From somewhere ahead, a foul stench had reached Winter. Winter thought of a hundred trolls, all sweating and covered in dung and locked in the same room together. Only when the stench had faded slightly did Winter and Anna follow the twins out of the dungeons and to the Great Hall.

"Look," Winter muttered to Anna a while after breakfast had started," at those twins."

Over at the Gryffindor table, the twins were seated alone and all the other students were sitting far away from them or giving them a wide berth, to the point that the hall was getting quite choked up with people trying to avoid them. Anna giggled and Winter grinned, satisfied. However, her grin turned even broader as she saw Professor McGonagall stride over to the twins and demand an explanation, her voice growing ever angrier as the twins insisted that they did not know what was going on.

"Brilliant!" Anna laughed," they've got detention for something they did not do! That was a wonderful idea!"

Winter, too, felt rather pleased with herself.

However, the first lesson of the day was rather a come- down for her. The lesson was transfiguration with Professor McGonagall and Winter found it extremely difficult. She was able to get the match stick that the class was supposed to be turning into needles to turn a sort of silvery colour, but it always remained wood.

"You need to give it more power," Anna told her as they practised," remember, you're turning this match into a whole different substance." Anna was doing very well with transfiguration and, by the end of the lesson, had turned her match into a recognisable needle. The only problem with Anna's work was that the needle was larger than it was supposed to be. Anna covered up for this by telling Professor McGonagall that she had intended to make a darning needle all along.

Winter and Anna's next class was Potions, a class to which Winter had been greatly looking forward to. Almost from the moment she could walk and talk, Winter had been making potions, always encouraged by her mother who was a brilliant potion maker herself. As Winter read over her timetable, she saw that the her class would be having potions with the Gryffindors.

The class was very quiet when Professor Snape swept into the classroom. He began by taking the register and then proceeded to start the lesson.

You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion making," his introduction began, talking very softly. Many of the class looked petrified at this ominous introduction, but Winter was not particularly worried and paid little attention to the rest of his speech, taking the opportunity to look around at the Gryffindor first years. She noticed one boy looking at Snape with an expression of both fear and loathing. With her keen sense of people's thoughts and minds, she gathered that this boy , whose name she knew to be Steve Fyre had heard a lot of bad things about Snape-probably that he was an evil, dark wizard- and he clearly believed every word that he had heard.

Winter felt a surge of relief when the class was told to brew a simple cure for boils. With her mother's help, she had already learnt how to do this potion and had done it many times. When she was nine years old, she and Jenny had sold many of this potions at Jenny's step sister's high school after discovering how well the potion worked on acne. Indeed, there had been great demand for this amazing " all natural skin-clearing product" and Jenny and Winter had made quite a lot of money, which they had split between them. Unfortunately, they had had to stop when the product started getting a bit too much attention and a school nurse had started trying to find out exactly what was in this miraculous product.

Winter had only just finished crushing her snake fangs when a small Gryffindor girl accidently knocked a bottle of green liquid onto the floor where it smashed to pieces. Several of the Slytherins laughed as Snape bore down on her menacingly and, after insulting her for about ten minutes, took five points off Gryffindor.

"It was an accident!" the boy who Winter had noticed earlier cried angrily and glared at Snape, who calmly said," and another five point for talking out of turn, Mr Fyre." The boy turned as red as his name suggested and clenched his fists, but Snape had turned away from him.

Winter was the first to finish her potion, only about three quarters of the way through the lesson and she felt like glowing with pride when Snape actually called her potion good. She knew that he would not often compliment a students work, although being in "his" house undoubtedly helped.

"Teacher's pet!" Steve snarled and immediately had ten points taken away from Gryffindor.

"He's already had fifteen points taken off Gryffindor!" Anna whispered, delighted," I think he'll just about win the house cup for us!"

As Winter made her way up to the front with her flask of potion, she had to pass Steve's desk and, as she did so, Steve stuck out his foot, but Winter was prepared for this and pretended to stumble. As she did so, she managed to "accidently" knock his entire bottle of snakes fangs into the cauldron, which immediately began to spit out purple flames.

"You did that on purpose!" Winter yelled to Steve, who seemed frozen with fury that his potion was ruined," you tried to trip me up!" She made sure that Snape could hear her.

"I think twenty points from Gryffindor should teach you a lesson," Snape towered over Steve as Winter slipped away to put her potion on Snape's desk," and another five for the mess."

Anna gave Winter the thumbs up as Winter rejoined her at the table.

At the end of the day, Winter and Anna headed back to the common room where they spent the evening practicing spells from Winter's books. Winter found several charms that interested her, including spells to disguise herself and she cut off a lock of her hair and spent some time changing it from black to blonde and then black again. At first her hair became more white than blonde, but she mastered the spell very quickly.

"Why don't you have a go with your hair?" Winter asked Anna," maybe you can turn yours black."

Anna tried, but the hair burst into flame. Winter chuckled," good thing you didn't try it on yourself, then," she commented. Anna shrugged, unconcerned.

"It's a boring spell," she replied, as Winter experimented with making highlights in the lock of hair," I'm much more interested in more fighting spells. This looks good." She picked up a book on basic curses and their defences."These might be good to learn if that Steve tries to get revenge on us for potions."

"More like revenge on me," Winter replied," but I see your point," she dropped her hair and looked over Anna's shoulder at the book, reading about the shield charm.

" It looks more on a second years level," she said, "but I'm sure we'll learn."

" It'll be even better when we start Defence against the Dark Arts, on Friday" Anna said optimistically," then we'll learn some cool spells to protect ourselves from. I have to say, most of our other lessons are a bit boring, especially charms. All we do is theory."

Defence Against the Dark Arts proved to be extremely disappointing, however.

Anna was one of the first to get in the class room and Winter joined her a few minutes later. Both girls took out their wands, as did most of the class. Both girls groaned inwardly when Professor Umbridge entered the class and said," wands away, please. Text books out."

"Now, does everyone have a copy of Defensive Magical Theory for Beginners?" Umbridge asked. Winter had the strong feeling that this was how she began every class, probably word for word.

Most of the class muttered that they had.

"That won't do," Professor Umbridge shook her head," I'm going to repeat the question and you will answer "Yes, Professor Umbridge, or No, Professor Umbridge. Now, we will try again. Does everyone have a copy of Defensive Magical Theory for Beginners?"

Most of the class, including Anna and Winter, replied, "Yes, Professor Umbridge," but three boys, whose names were Danny Murphy, Jack Shade and Robert Ball all said "No, Professor Umbridge," even though the text books were wide open on their desks.

Umbridge's eyes grew hard." Who said that?" she snapped, unable to identify exactly who had spoken," own up now or I put the whole class in detention!"

The class exchanged dark looks. Clearly, this was not a woman to mess with.

"Who said what?" Jack asked.

" I beg your pardon!" Umbridge snapped.

"Excuse me. Who said what, Professor?"

Umbridge looked frozen for a moment, almost scared, as she looked at Jack. Winter wondered if this manner was something to do with Jack's tone. Although Jack's tone was polite, there was something slightly challenging and rude about his manner, although it was almost impossible to place. Umbridge clearly could not tell if Jack was being rude or genuinely confused. In the end, she decided to assume rudeness. However, as Winter watched Umbridge more closely, she saw that Umbridge was looking very hard at Jack's mouth. Jack's canines were considerably longer and sharper than normal. Also, his skin was deathly white, paler even than Winter. He had a long fringe covering his right eye, but his left eye had a slightly luminous look. The class had widely assumed that he was at least part vampire and, no doubt, the thought had occurred to Umbridge, who seemed furious at the thought.

"Detention!" she snapped. Jack opened his mouth, furious, looking as though he was about to ask what he was been punished for, but he quickly seemed to realise that it would do no good.

Umbridge was silent for a moment, glaring over the class as though waiting for someone to come to Jack's defence. No one did, but there was a great deal of dirty looks in Umbridge's direction, though.

When Umbridge was satisfied that the class was under her control again, she drew out her own short wand and pointed at the board where she began to write about the course aims.

"This will be a very simple course, to match your intellect," she told the class in a simpering voice and the anger in the class grew. They did not appreciate being called simple.

"You will be studying the theory of defensive magic," Umbridge continued," in a safe, secure environment."

Next to Winter, Anna looked horrified.

"Take out some parchment and copy these down," Umbridge instructed," and then read through chapter one of the text book. There will be no need to talk."

Winter opened her textbook, which was easily the most boring book she had ever read. 'She deserves to be punished,' Winter thought angrily,' for making helpless eleven year olds read this trash.'

Next her, Anna seemed to be thinking along the same lines, judging by the expression on her face. After seeing Umbridge looking so satisfied and looking over at Jack, who was looking rather miserable, Winter felt a surge of anger. Although it was uncharacteristic of her to act out of emotions, she decided that Umbridge definitely needed taking down a notch.

"Itchius Epidermus," she whispered as softly as she possibly could while loudly rustling the pages of her text book with one had. With the other hand, she had aimed her wand under the desk at Umbridge's legs. She instantly dropped her wand back in her pocket and waited for the fun to begin.

Umbridge twitched and twisted at first and then began to scratch herself violently. First she scratched her arms and shoulders and face and then, with a yelp, she leapt to her feet and began scratching all over herself.

The rest of the class stared, open mouthed and then began to laugh.

"It's my clothes!" Umbridge muttered," those House Elves must have done something when they washed my clothes! Ooh!" With another violent scratch, she ran out the class room and the class cheered.

"Who did that?" Danny beamed," Was that you, Jack?"

Jack shook his head, looking mystified," I wish." He said. Anna, who had seen Winter take out her wand, looked over at her, but Winter kept quiet. She did not want word to get round to Umbridge that it was she who had done the spell.

"Well, if no one want to take the credit," Danny said after some moments," well done, whoever you are? Now, we have a free lesson!"

" What if Umbridge comes back?" asked a pale, nervous looking boy, whose long black hair reached well over his collar. Winter knew that his name was Obsidian Lestrange, nephew to two notorious Death Eaters, Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange. His own father, who was much younger than his brothers, was not a Death Eater, however, and had been disowned by the family. However, that did not stop a lot of associations being passed down to Obsidian, who had probably been attacked more times than the rest of the class put together. His shy, nervous manner did not help, either.

" I don't think she'll come back," Danny replied," she'll be too busy yelling at the House Elves to remember us."

Winter felt a twinge of guilt for the House Elves, but she assumed that they were relatively safe from harm. After all, they worked for Dumbledore, not for Umbridge.

" Anyone want a game of chess?" Obsidian asked, nervously, and Winter immediately accepted. She loved chess and had been longing for someone to play it with. Anna had told her that she found it boring.

As Winter and Obsidian settled down with their chess set, Anna and another girl called Janet Spruce moved the tables to the side of the room where they practiced duelling and Danny and Robert found a space to start a game of gob stones, with the other students watching the games.

As Danny had predicted, Umbridge did not return. When the bell rang for the end of the lesson, the class moved the desks back roughly into their original positions and threw the splinters of chairs and desks that had been hit by Anna and Janet out of the window. Aside from the pools of gunk from the gob stones on the floor and the absence of a few desks, the class looked more or less as it was originally.

"That was fun," Anna grinned as they left the class.


	3. Winter meets her Arch Enemy

As Winter and Anna headed for lunch, they were confronted by Steve Fyre, who stepped in front of them," I'll get you back for potions!" he snarled, drawing out his wand," I'll turn you into a toad!" he shot a jet of green light straight at Winter who fell over backwards, pain shooting up her entire body, which was turning green. She felt her body twisting and writhing as she was pulled into a squatting position. She had to clench her teeth to keep from screaming in utter agony, but then her tongue began to grow long and hung out her mouth, which she felt stretching and widening. Blood trickled down the corners of her mouth, which had cracked as her mouth had stretched. She could not breath properly and she felt as though her lungs were being squashed as she gasped for breath.

Dimly, she could see Anna's horrified face which contorted with fury as she turned to Steve, who looked both terrified and defiant. Before he could move, Anna had pointed her wand directly at Steve's hand which literally burst open. Blood spattered onto the ground as the skin of his hand cracked and Winter could see bits of bone sticking out of his knuckles, as well as his middle finger, which was hanging off his hand, attached only by skin. Several strands of muscle was hanging out by the base of his thumb.

By this time, Anna's screams and Steve's yells had attracted quite a crowd. Winter's agony was growing now and her vision was blurring worse than ever and her hearing was turning dim. Looking at her hands, she saw that the tips of her fingers were bulbous, like a toad's and her entire arm was greener than ever. Winter fought to remain conscious as she felt someone carrying her. There was a great deal of noise all around her, but Winter could barely distinguish one noise from another. Winter felt sick inside and her body seemed to have shrunk somehow.

She did not know how long she lay in such agony that she could barely think and she had lost all sense of time. Her vision became so poor that she could only see light and dark. The light dimmed and faded away to be replaced by pitch blackness which seemed to last for many ages, to be replaced by light again. "Sometimes, she felt herself drifting into unconsciousness, but she could never tell for how long. When she felt her body straightening and the pain lifting, she did not immediately realise what was happening.

She felt as though a veil were being lifted as her vision became clearer and she realised that the pain had subsided. As Winter looked around, she saw that she was in the hospital wing. Anna was sitting by her bedside, both looking on as Madame Pomfrey stood over her, muttering some spells. She stopped as Winter stirred."How are you feeling?" she asked.

"Alright, I suppose," Winter said, ashamed of the shakiness in her voice," what happened?"

"Steve tried to turn you into a toad," Anna replied," but, being only a first year, well, the spell went horribly wrong."

"And what happened to Steve?" Winter asked," I saw what you did to his hand."

"It's fixed up, although it will take a long time to heal," Anna scowled," but, unfortunately, it will heal. I got detention, but nothing worse. Dumbledore said that I probably was not entirely aware of what I was doing, given how scared and angry I was and I did my best to further their impression. Steve got it much worse. In fact, he was nearly expelled."

"Wish he was," Winter muttered.

"Dumbledore let him off, though," Anna continued," he said that, as a first year, Steve could not possibly have had any idea of the consequence of trying to perform a seventh level spell."

Winter snorted," No idea? He should have known better than to do anything like that, even if he didn't know the details!"

"I know," Anna looked very angry," Dumbledore seemed more concerned with him and about the trauma he went through and how he might be scarred for life and put off magic than for you and the trauma you went through. He seemed to think you'd get over it no problem. He just said that often perpetrators suffer more than victims."

Winter shook her head."Rubbish," she said," but, anyway, how long was I here?"

"Only a day and a night, so far," Anna replied," but I don't know when you'll be getting out of here."

Winter spent the rest of the week end in the Hospital Wing, where she received a surprising number of visitors, including most of her class, Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson and even Professor Snape, although he only came to make sure that she would be in class on the Monday.

Anna was something of a hero amongst the Slytherins for "blowing up a Gryffindor's hand," even though Steve's hand would heal fully. A few people were inclined to laugh at Winter for almost being turned into a toad, but more seemed to direct their scorn at Steve.

Although Winter recovered well after the incident and was throwing herself into her lessons, she had a lingering tiredness, as well as aches and pains that would fade, but never go away entirely.

When Winter looked over at Steve when she entered the potions class room, she was pleased to see that his hand was still bandaged and that he was having trouble cutting up his ingredients.

"I hope you don't think what you did was brave," Anna hissed at Steve as she passed them, while Winter moved straight to her cauldron and started preparing her ingredients," I saw you screaming after I hurt your hand. What on earth are you doing in Gryffindor?"

Steve's hands were shaking with fury, but he could not think of a reply.

"My friend was braver than you!" Anna continued, pressing in for the attack," she was half mutated into a toad thanks to your lousy spell and she didn't cry!"

Anna moved past Steve, who was looking as though he wished her nothing but a painful death.

"I couldn't let it pass," Anna muttered to Winter as she set up her cauldron next to her.

" He deserves everything he gets," Winter replied, struggling to keep her hand steady as she measured out salamander blood. It was not emotion that was making her hand shake, but rather the weakness that hung over her constantly and she wondered whether her body would ever recover. She hated feeling like an invalid. However, her potion proved to be top of the class again and Winter's spirits raised considerably.

After her eventful first week at Hogwarts, Winter felt somewhat relieved that things seemed to settle down over the next month, despite Steve trying to jinx them in the corridor every now and then. However, both Winter and Anna were able to produce shield charms that were easily able to repel his spells and they also grew better at avoiding him in the corridor, for they had discovered several secret passage ways to help them avoid enemies.

Defence Against the Dark Arts proved to be as dull as ever, although Winter did not risk doing any more spells in class except once, after Umbridge gave Jack a detention for talking in class after Jack had muttered to Danny how boring the book was. Umbridge seemed to have developed a special dislike for Jack and for Danny, who were undoubtedly the class rebels. Winter, unable to completely let the matter rest, had managed to turn Umbridge's horrible pink ribbon blue. Umbridge had been disturbed by the smirks and sniggers from the class, but had not worked out what they had been so amused about.

Aside from Defence Against the Dark Arts, Winter enjoyed her other lessons. She had stolen a great many supplies from the Green houses and made several potions to help her improve her strength. As the potion was not banned, Winter and Anna were able to work openly in the common room, lighting a small fire on a part of the stone floor that was not carpeted. Just so long as the potion did not smoke too much, no one seemed to mind and indeed, many Slytherins seemed to spend a great deal of time brewing various potions.

For Winter, Charms improved a great deal when Professor Flitwick decided that it was time to start them actually using magic and they were given a feather on which to practice levitation.

"Remember the wrist movement," Professor Flitwick squeaked," swish and flick! And remember to say wingardium leviosa!"

"Wingardium Leviosa!" Winter chanted. The feather twitched a little, but stayed still. "Wingardium leviosa!" she repeated, concentrating harder and the feather rose into the air, although only slightly. At first it was awkward, as Winter had to concentrate hard to keep it up, but after a few minutes, as she lifted the feather higher, it grew easier, as though her mind was getting used to the spell and soon she was spinning the feather over the class's heads, twirling her wand and making it dance.

"Well done, Miss Tempest!" Professor Flitwick squeaked," but there's no need to show off!"

" Yeah, I'll teach her a lesson!" Danny sent his own feather flying at Winter, who moved her own feather out of the way. Danny's feather halted in mid air and then turned, coming back for the attack.

"Oh, look, a feather fight!" a girl called Maria Ropetti commented.

"Go Danny!" Jack called, as the feather's swirled above them.

"Go Winter!" Anna cheered.

"Really!" Professor Flitwick called," I'm glad you're enjoying yourself, but that's enough!"

Reluctantly, Winter lowered her feather to the desk.

That evening, as Winter headed back to the common room alone after dinner, for Anna had stopped to go the bathroom, Winter found herself walking along a deserted corridor and, as she did so, she heard a faint moan coming from above her. Looking upwards, she saw that Obsidian was literally pinned to the ceiling, his face bloody, bound and gagged.

"Releasius!" Winter cried, performing one of several untying spells that she had learned and the gag fell off Obsidian's mouth.

"Help me," he moaned weakly. Blood was pouring from his nose and mouth, dripping onto the floor below him and both of his eyes were black. Winter also saw a tooth on the floor in front of her.

"Okay," Winter was not sure exactly how Obsidian was being held to the ceiling, for she knew it could have been any one of several sticking charms. She fervently hoped that it was not a permanent sticking charm.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" Winter cried, trying to lower Obsidian to the ground, but he did not move. Winter thought through several of the spells she had learnt and thought of another idea. After casting a cushioning charm on the ground below, she cried, "Reversium!" This was a fairly advanced spell that required a grat deal of sensitivity and that could undo a great many charms ranging from colour changes to sticking charms. One had to concentrate extremely hard, mentally feeling for the magic that they were trying to undo and, when they had pin pointed it, they would have to picture it going backwards, forcing the magic to bend to their will. That was the theory, anyway.

Winter managed to sense what felt like a patch of magic by the ceiling and began to picture it as glue melting. Winter felt sweat trickle down her face and she could almost feel her wand working with her. Over the past month, Winter had felt her wand easier to use with the more powerful spells she had used, as though she was gaining its respect over time. She was not sure if it was her imagination, but she was sure that this respect had increased whenever she had used spells in more unusual ways, such as when she had levitated herself up into a particularly tall tree to hide from Steve. Winter could almost feel the magic unravelling and she could not help gasping slightly with the mental effort to keep up the spell.

Obsidian gave a cry as the magic broke and he fell onto Winter's cushioning charm.

"What happened?" Winter asked as she helped Obsidian to his feet.

"Steve Fyre and his gang attacked me," Obsidian said shakily," they had Joe Blake with them. You know, that huge boy whose dream it was to become a boxing champion before he got his letter to come here. He beat me up while Rory McCormack pinned my arms behind my back. Steve gave this long speech about Death Eaters getting what they deserve and about getting justice for all my aunt and uncle's victims and then he blasted me onto the ceiling and I was stuck there." He looked as though he wanted to cry, but contained himself," I felt so stupid!" he burst out," I couldn't do anything!" he sighed," I sometimes think that the Sorting Hat made a mistake putting me in Slytherin. I sometimes think that I should've been in Hufflepuff." He looked very downcast.

"Belonging in Hufflepuff is not necessarily a bad thing," Winter smiled slightly as she helped Obsidian up the stairs as they headed to the hospital wing," but I don't think the Sorting Hat made a mistake. You're certainly very sneaky when it comes to chess."

Obsidian did not smile," Everyone else in Slytherin seems so strong," he said," not like Gryffindor type strong, but able to look after themselves, able to take anything. Me, I'm a coward."

"You're a survivor," Winter replied," look at you know, walking and talking after taking one of the worst beatings I've ever seen. You've spent most of your first month of Hogwarts taking the wrath of half the school on you and you haven't left, which is what many others would have done and I've seen you hide from bullies in the most interesting ways, like that time you jumped in the lake to avoid Gary Sylvan and remained there for twenty minutes. How did you do that?"

" I could breathe out under the water," Obsidian replied," and I could use my wand to blast air into my mouth to breathe in. By the way, were you spying on me?"

"Technically, I was spying on Gary," Winter replied," I just happened to see you, but the point is that what you did was pretty clever."

By the time they reached the hospital wing, Obsidian looked slightly happier, even though his face was in an even worse mess, as blood from his nose had down his face, covering his mouth and chin.

Back in the Slytherin common room, Winter met Anna and told her what had happened to Obsidian.

" He's not even a Death Eater and they holding him responsible for all his family's faults," Winter shook her head.

"It's not fair!" Anna was more visibly angry," and we're supposed to be the bullies!"

" Well, sometimes we are," Winter said fairly," I heard a Slytherin seventh year hexed a Gryffindor first year this morning and the boy was paralysed for the entire day. I hear the Slytherin got detention and fifty points off from Slytherin."

" So that's why we're so low on points," Anna commented.

A few hours later, Draco Malfoy came over.

"Where you the one who witnessed the attack on Obsidian Lestrange?" he asked, agitated.

" I didn't witnesses it," Winter replied," I came on him after it was over and helped him down from the ceiling."

" It's a pity you didn't see it," Malfoy looked very annoyed," you see, no one believes Obsidian when he said a gang set upon him unprovoked. Joe is saying that Obsidian taunted him about being a Mudblood and tried to curse him and that he hit out at him in self defence. The other's aren't implicated at all."

"What!" Anna broke in, looking shocked.

" They'll never prove that," Winter replied," Obsidian had at least five separate bruises on his face as well as two black eyes. It means he was hit at least six times. If Joe had hit him once or twice, that could explain self defence, but not six times."

" That's a good observation," Malfoy said," I'll bring that to their attention. Would you also come and tell them about finding him on the ceiling? You see, no one seems to believe that, either."

" Not even Dumbledore?" Winter asked, walking with Malfoy to the wall that formed the door of the common room," I heard that he could tell if people are lying."

" I personally think he knows the truth but sympathises with Blake," Malfoy looked very angry," he always sides with the Mudbloods."

Malfoy and Winter arrived at Snape's office, where Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall, Professor Snape, Obsidian and Joe Blake was standing. Obsidian looked much better, although his face was still bruised. However, Winter was relieved to see that his teeth had been fixed.

" Here's someone who says she saw Obsidian stuck to the ceiling," Malfoy said and Winter stepped forward. She hated having so many people staring at her, but she was quite confident as she told her story. There was silence when she had finished until McGonagall said," Nonsense. It would take magic beyond the talents of a first year to stick a person to the ceiling like that, and as for bringing in Mr Fyre, well, he was a nervous wreck after trying to turn Ms Tempest, here , into a toad."

"You are angry at Fyre, are you not?" Dumbledore asked, gazing hard at Winter," you want revenge?"

Winter kept calm, managing to shut off her thoughts as best she could," I want him punished for what he has done, yes," she said, partially telling the truth," but by the proper means." This was closer to a lie.

" Your family has never gone by the proper means in anything," Dumbledore observed, still looking hard at her," are you so very different from them."

Winter shrugged, still very calm.

" You swear that your implicating Fyre had nothing to do with vengeance for trying to turn you into a toad?" Dumbledore asked.

"Yes," Winter replied. Both Snape and Dumbledore were staring at her and she could almost feel them both trying to break through her mind, to see if she was lying or not. It was an extremely uncomfortable feeling for her and she found herself trying to shut them out almost instinctively, allowing them to see her memory of finding Obsidian, but nothing else. Winter could see something cold behind Dumbledore's blue eyes, as though he did not like what he was seeing- or what he was not seeing. Snape looked the same as ever.

After some moments, Dumbledore said," well, I think we've heard everything we need to hear. You may go."

As Winter left, she heard Dumbledore say," it's rare to find a talent for Occlumency in one so young, isn't it Severus?"

" Yes," came Snape's curt reply.

" All in all, I don't believe that Mr Fyre would attack Mr Lestrange like that," Dumbledore said thoughtfully," he is still very much traumatised by the toad incident and there is a great deal of anger in Miss Tempests heart, that much I know. Overall, I would not count her story for much, but there's still Mr Lestrange to consider."

"He would have no reason to lie," Snape said.

"Oh, really!" Professor McGonagall broke in," Of course he did, if what Blake says is true."

"If what Blake says is true," Snape repeated, sounding highly sceptical.

The debate went on while Winter crouched at the keyhole, listening. Both Obsidian and Joe were questioned more. Unfortunately, Obsidian was nervous and hesitant with his answers while Joe was clear and confident. Winter wondered why Dumbledore did not see that Joe was lying, as Snape clearly did, but then it occurred to her that Dumbledore did know, but felt sorry for Joe. From Dumbledore's line of questioning, it sounded as though he thought that Obsidian had been insulting Joe, probably calling him Mudblood or some such offensive term and that Joe had attacked him out of anger.

"Well, as much as I understand that keeping your temper can be very difficult," Dumbledore said gently to Joe," I'm afraid it's a skill we all must learn. You will receive a detention. As will you," Winter could only assume that he was talking to Obsidian" to teach you not to provoke your fellow students, who are every bit your equal."

Winter heard Obsidian's cry of protest.

Even the Head Master is prejudiced against us, she thought bitterly. He distrusts me because I closed my mind to him and he distrusts Obsidian because of his family. She knew that Obsidian's father, while not a death eater, still had some strong anti- Muggle views, some of which undoubtedly had passed down to Obsidian. Winter supposed that Dumbledore must have seem some of his father in Obsidian.

When Winter sensed the proceedings coming to an end, she hastily moved away from the door and hurried to the common room.

"What happened?" Anna asked and Winter told her what had happened and what she had heard.

Winter had barely let out a cry of anger when Draco Malfoy entered and told the entire common room what had just happened and Anna's anger was reflected throughout the common room.

" It's because Dumbledore's a Gryffindor," a fifth year girl called Daphne Greengrass muttered," he favours them! I mean, I know Snape favours us, but Dumbledore's the Headmaster! He shouldn't have favourites!"

There was a general mutter of agreement throughout the common room.

" Well," Winter muttered to Anna," I suppose we'll just have to create our own justice then."

The next day at potions, Steve seemed very smug and smirked over at Obsidian, who turned away, his face reddening. Winter's mind was working on a plan of revenge even as she joined the queue and she did not stop thinking even when Snape took ten points off Gryffindor for Steve having his shirt untucked. Winter felt that he deserved worse.


	4. Winter's Revenge and other Activities

She got her opportunity about half way through the lesson. While Snape's back was turned and while Steve was checking his fire, she breathed" Wingardium Leviosa."

She wished that she could do non- verbal spells. Although she knew that non verbal spells were only taught from sixth year onwards, it had not stopped her trying. However, she had had to be content with merely saying spells very softly. Over the hiss and bubbles of potions, Winter's whisper went unheard.

Winter managed to lift Steve's bottle of newts eyes. She twirling her wand and managed to tip the bottle over Steve's cauldron, adding only a few drops so that Steve would not notice that any eyes were missing and replaced the bottle on the desk before returning it to its original position and quickly looking down at her own cauldron. She waited and grinned at Steve's cry.

As Steve's cauldron grew hotter, it released a stream of green vapour that hit Steve full in the face, causing gigantic boils to break out all over his face, while blood began to leak out of the corner of his eyes.

"Stupid boy!" Snape snarled, pulling Steve away from the cauldron," I told the class clearly not to add the salamander eyes until after you had added the dried nettles. Ten points from Gryffindor for not listening, now get to the Hospital Wing before you go blind!"

"How do you think of these things?" Anna asked admiringly as they left the dungeons to go to their flying lessons.

Anna was proving to be a natural flyer and had even being ear marked as a potential seeker when she reached her second year if she did well at the try outs. Winter, on the other hand, was merely a passable flyer. She was able to stay on her broomstick a few lessons in, but preferred to stay close to stay close to the ground, although that was partly because Steve and his gang kept trying to knock her off her broom. Anna, on the other hand, was more than a match for Steve, Joe and Rory put together and often enjoyed taunting them, causing them to chase her as fast as the school brooms would allow. She would fly straight at the nearest wall and then turn upwards suddenly, six times out of ten causing Joe- who had the worst reflexes of the group, to crash into the wall.

Without Steve, however, who was still in the Hospital Wing, Winter found flying more bearable than usual as the rest of Steve's gang seemed to have lost heart without their leader.

The first years were given balls to throw to each other from increasing distances. Winter found herself dropping as many balls as Anna caught.

"That was terrible," Winter moaned as they headed to a History of Magic," it's impossible to both catch a ball and stay balanced at the same time!"

" Nah, it just takes practice," Anna replied," I'd love to make the Quidditch team, especially as a seeker! Did you see the Quidditch Cup last year? The one with Ireland playing Bulgaria!"

"Well, I went to the match," Winter said hesitantly," my mother had some deals to make with some Bulgarian Wizards and she took the family with her, but I was more impressed by the omnioculars than the match." Omnioculars were instruments similar to binoculars, but could zoom in and replay images.

"What?" Anna asked.

"Well, they're terrific for spying on people," Winter shrugged," after enough experimentation I managed to make one able to record short images and store them on the omnioculars. I can show you sometime."

" Very clever," Anna remarked," but I still don't understand how you could prefer that to Quidditch."

" Listen," Winter replied," I've got to go to Professor Umbridge and get her to sign this note letting me get this book from the Restricted Section of the library. I promised this Ravenclaw girl that I'd get it."

" How are you going to do that?" Anna asked.

" Well," Winter lowered her voice," If you'll let me, I thought of getting that note you wrote about getting permission to own your own broomstick and ask Umbridge to sign it," she said," and then I'll temporarily bewitch it to look like a note to get the book from the library, leaving Umbridge's signature. I'll give the note back to you just as it was, I promise."

"As if I'd trust your promises," Anna snorted," but its fine. You can take the note. At least I won't have to deal with Umbridge."

That evening, Winter could not help feel rather nervous as she knocked softly on Umbridge's office door.

"Enter," came a high pitched voice from inside and Winter entered, making sure to keep her body language as subservient as possible.

" Um, Professor," she said, " I was wondering if you'd sign this on behalf of my friend, Annabel Anderson. She's studying now, so she could not come. You see, she's only a first year so she can't own her own broomstick, but she's an excellent flyer and she desperately wants her own broom."

" What House is she in?" Umbridge asked sweetly, but her eyes remained as cold as ever.

" Slytherin, Professor," Winter replied at once.

"Why come to me?" Umbridge asked," Why not Professor Snape or Professor Dumbledore?"

Winter realised that Umbridge was not quite as stupid as she had first imagined.

" Well, Professor," Winter replied, without hesitation," Professor Dumbledore does seem to rather favour the Gryffindors and I thought that you might have more, well, power than Professor Snape, being Hogwarts High Inquisitor."

The truth was that Winter was sure that Snape would be able to tell that she was up to something. She had been studying Occlumency from books and was greatly improving, but she knew better than to try fool Snape.

The explanation seemed to please Umbridge, however and she reached for the paper.

Winter thanked her profusely and left as quickly as she could without seeming suspicious.

Winter dodged into a deserted classroom, where she pulled out her wand and began to bewitch the parchment, changing the text, although not permanently. It was a tricky spell, highly advanced for her level, as far as she knew and she had spent several hours practicing it until she could get it perfect. By the time she was working on Anna's note, she could do it perfectly within three minutes.

Winter hurried to the library, where she handed Madame Pince the note, adding that the book was not for her and that she was merely collecting it on someone else's behalf. This was explained in the note.

Madame Pince gazed at the note for a long while, but went to retrieve the book, which was called " Nosferatu. Guide to the Living Dead and their Destruction and Resurrection."

Winter met the Ravenclaw girl, whose name was Sarah Cole just outside the Ravenclaw common room. " I'll give it to you tomorrow," Sarah said, after thanking her and handing her a galleon," but, please, tell me you didn't spread it around that I want this book. Some of the teachers won't understand."

" I never mentioned your name," Winter said truthfully," and I won't. Slytherins understand discretion," she grinned. She understood discretion so well that she had introduced herself to Sarah under a different name. It was fortunate that Sarah did not know her very well.

"Here's your note," Winter handed Anna the note, restored to its original state, when she met Anna back in the Slytherin Common Room," you should be very proud. The Hogwarts High Inquisitor herself has given permission for you to have your very own broomstick!"

Anna laughed and took the note." Thanks," she said. Immediately, another girl in their class, Hitomi Yamamoto, a very quiet, pretty girl who seemed the most gentle, feminine girl in the class, but who had shown a surprising aptitude at knocking players off their brooms during exercises, came up to Winter and asked if Winter could get her permission to have her own broom, too. Winter said that she would try.

More weeks passed relatively uneventfully until Winter received a small package from her mother, with a note on it that said "Fragile, handle with care." Winter knew that this was her mother's code for." Do not open this package in public."

Later that evening, Winter and Anna headed for the empty dormitory where they opened the package, which turned out to be a box containing what looked like a large Muggle syringe. The instrument had an unusually long needle. At the bottom of the box, Winter found a note from her mother and a grin spread over her face.

"It's my mother," she explained to Anna, reading the note," she wants Mandrake juice and can't get any so she's asked me if I can get some as soon as possible. Apparently they keep some Mandrakes in Green House Three. This thing," Winter indicated the syringe like object," is a Mandrake juice Extractor. Apparently invented by my grandmother and kept a general secret from the wizarding world. You stick it into the soil of the pot that holds the Mandrake and the needle borrows in and punctures the arm of the Mandrake and you can suck up some of its juice into the syringe. It's safe for the user as well as for the Mandrake, provided we don't bleed it too much, according to my mother here. It just leaves a tiny puncture wound that Professor Sprout probably wouldn't notice."

" Fine, but what about getting to the Mandrakes?" Anna asked," Green House Three is usually locked and you'll have to do it at night. You'll probably be expelled if you're caught. I don't understand why your mother would ask you to do such a thing."

" Because she needs Mandrake Juice," Winter shrugged.

"Well, I'm not coming with you," Anna said irritably," I'd do a lot for you, but I'm not going to be expelled for getting stuff for your mother."

"Well, I'm not going to be expelled, either," Winter replied.

Later that night, Winter headed to the Slytherin Common room and out to the dungeons, which were so cold that Winter's breath misted up in front of her eyes. She had practiced a great deal of spells before hand, including one that she had made up herself. It was a variation of the cushioning charm that she had cast upon her shoes to make the soles soft, so she made no sound as she walked. It sounded as though she was walking barefoot over a particularly thick carpet.

Up ahead one long corridor, Winter spotted the Bloody Baron and, unable to go back and having no place to hide, she pointed her wand to the rafters above her and whispered "Retractum!"

Instantly, Whisper felt a pulling sensation and she was jerked upwards and managed to grab hold of the rafters, trying to ignore the height. She had not acted a moment too soon, for, in the corridor, The Bloody Baron had turned and was facing the spot where she had been standing moments before. Slowly, The Bloody Baron began to glide back along the corridor, passing beneath her while her arms ached and sweat began to run down her temple despite the cold.

When she was sure that The Bloody Baron had gone, she lowered herself to the ground using "Wingardium Leviosa". It was a hard feat to manage, for, by definition, levitation usually involved causing objects to rise rather than fall, but eventually Winter felt her feet hit the solid stone floor of the Dungeons.

Winter arrived at the front doors, but, had to dive under a table holding a marble statue of a powerful wizard, as Peeves the Poltergeist appeared in the Entrance Hall. It was useful for Winter that she had a very strong streak of patience as she waited for Peeves to leave, her knees drawn up to her chin and her entire body growing stiffer by the minute. When he finally left, floating upwards through the ceiling, Winter lost no time in hurrying for the front doors.

The night air was cold on her face as Winter hurried over the grounds to the Green Houses, but as she neared them, she was forced to pull back into the shadows as she spotted a glimmer of pink up ahead of her.

Professor Umbridge was standing by the Green Houses, talking to a man who she addressed as Dawlish.

"Did you give Cornelius my report?" Umbridge half hissed, half spat," did you tell him about the boy and his... ancestry!"

"Yes, yes," Dawlish replied," but Cornelius says that you can't expel a boy just for being rude."

"Boy!" Umbridge spat," It's a filthy half –breed. It's only part alive!"

Winter clenched her fists. She was sure that Umbridge had been trying to get Jack Shade expelled. Jack was the only boy who could remotely fit the description of half breed, as there were rumours about his grandfather being a Vampire. Not reliable rumours, true, but rumours seemed good enough for Umbridge.

Winter crept around Umbridge and Dawlish and arrived at Green House Three, which was locked.

"Alohamora," Winter whispered and the door opened.

Winter's wand lit up seemingly of its own accord as Winter entered the Green House, but the light was very dim and likely to put down to moonlight if anyone saw it.

The first thing that Winter saw in front of her was a solid curtain of Devil's Snare, hanging from the ceiling and almost to the floor. Not wanting to disturb anything, Winter decided against using magic to move the plant, which, she knew, would strangle anything that touched it. Instead, she crawled underneath it, lying flat on the floor and using her legs to push herself forward.

'Now I know why I'm in Slytherin,' she thought to herself, as she twisted and writhed, sliding herself along the ground,' I feel like a serpent.'

She was still lying on the ground when she spotted the Venomous Tentacula bearing down on her, but she managed to aim her wand at it.

"Immobulous!" she hissed and the plant froze with its head inches from her face.

Her face wet with perspiration, Winter managed to find the Mandrake plants and identify the more mature ones by the tufts of leaves sprouting from the pots.

Extracting the juice went quickly and uneventfully and soon Winter was retracing her steps back to the common room, remembering to lock the Green House door behind her.

The Slytherin Common Room was deserted when Winter arrived. When Winter got to the dormitory, she found that Anna was still awake, looking anxious.

"Did you get it?" Anna whispered, being sure not to wake the others.

"Yeah and guess what," Winter whispered," I saw Umbridge meeting this Auror. She's trying to get Jack expelled because she thinks he's a half vampire."

"We'd better warn Jack," Anna said," but he might have guessed. Umbridge has put him in detention for so many stupid reasons that it's really obvious she is out to get him."


	5. Winter in Detention and How She Reacts

Chapter 5

There was great excitement about the school at the approach of the first Quidditch Match of the season, which would take place the following week and which was Slytherin versus Gryffindor. The Slytherins grew particularly excited the day before the match when Draco Malfoy started telling the Slytherins about his plan to demoralise the Gryffindor team by insulting Gryffindor's new Keeper, Ronald Weasley. Most of the school was well aware of Draco's enmity with Ron and his friends Harry Potter and Hermione Granger and many Slytherins were eager to support him. The Slytherin Common Room was rather noise the evening before the match when Draco and Pansy began to teach the Slytherins a song he had written called "Weasley is our King", an insulting song that he encouraged the Slytherins to sing at the match. He also sold several badges which also read "Weasley is our King."

Anna eagerly joined in with the practice renditions of "Weasley is our King," saying that it was a very catchy tune as well as a brilliant tactic against the Gryffindors.

Winter, who had little time for catchy tunes and Quidditch tactics, merely bent lower over the potion she was brewing. It was a tricky potion to temporarily improve concentration and, indeed, required a great deal of concentration to make. Winter was hoping to make some for Sarah Cole's brother, Jimmy, who was also in Ravenclaw, in fifth year and who was desperate to improve his marks, especially in potions. Sarah had put him in touch with Winter, who was getting a reputation as one of the top ten best potion makers in the school and he had offered Winter ten galleons to make him a large bottle. As long as he did not take any during his exams, he would not be considered cheating and Winter knew that the potion would make his studies far more effective than they had been so far.

" Aren't you even a bit interested in the match?" Anna asked, as Winter cut up peppermint leaves into exact quarters and measured them out before crushing them in her mortar.

"Yeah, I am. I hope we win." Winter replied casually.

Winter met Jimmy Cole by the stands in the Quidditch pitch the next day, where she handed him the Potion, then she and Anna headed to the stop of the stands, with Hitomi, who had started hanging out with the two ever since Winter had managed to get permission for her to have her own broom, to watch the match.

As the game began to start and the Slytherins began their chant of 'Weasley is our King', Anna soon could not continue to sing as she was laughing so hard at Ronald Weasley's terrible performance, while even Winter chuckled softly.

"Why on earth did they let him be Keeper?" She asked Anna as Ronald let through another goal.

"Well, maybe it's because his friends with Harry Potter," Hitomi replied," I know Potter's not the captain, but he certainly has influence in the team."

However, even as the Slytherin's laughter grew, Winter suddenly leaned forward and cried," Look!"

She had spotted Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy streaking toward a small garden object and she knew what would happen. She let out a small moan of disappointment as Harry Potter's fingers closed around the golden snitch, while next to her, Anna was booing as loudly as she could, while Hitomi remained as quiet as ever.

However, later that day, the Slytherins were to receive news that would cheer them up considerably. After the match, it was reported, Harry Potter-along with the two Gryffindor beaters Fred and George Weasley- had violently attacked Draco Malfoy and had received a lifelong ban from playing Quidditch by Professor Umbridge.

"That'll improve our chances for the next match!" Anna said happily when they heard this news ,"We should throw a party!"

Pansy Parkinson, who was nearby, overheard this comment and greed," Party, everyone!" She called," to celebrate the ban of that idiot Potter and the blood-traitors Weasleys from the Quidditch Pitch forever!"

The Slytherins roared with delight at having some good news to celebrate after losing a match and Anna, Hitomi and Winter were some of the first to volunteer to go fetch food from the Kitchens.

Winter had long known how to enter the kitchens, but had never done so before, for she had had no need.

Now, however, she made her way to the basement and found the picture of a bowl of fruit, which she tickled. The picture became a door, which opened and she, Anna and Hitomi found themselves in a large room with a high ceiling that contained tables positioned exactly like the four House Tables above them.

Immediately after entering the Kitchen, the three found themselves surrounded by House Elves all eagerly offering to serve them and asking what they would like. Hitomi ordered the food while Anna chatted with the House Elves, who seemed nervous at first. Winter got the impression that the elves did not like the Slytherin students much, although they could not show it. However, many elves seemed to get more at ease around Hitomi, who became quite chatty as she asked them about work and recipes and complimented them on their food. Hitomi seemed to have the ability to make almost anyone like her, as did Anna, but to a lesser extent.

Winter, meanwhile, found a place in the corner from which to watch the Elves at work. She never felt comfortable around house elves, thinking of them as a product of Wizards' laziness. She had always been taught that if you want something, get it yourself and that having slaves was a sign of weakness and laziness and the House Elves were just that – slaves.

Winter wondered what would happen if the elves ever broke their shackles and revolted against the school. She did not think that the school would have much of a chance, for she knew that Elves had powerful magic of their own and she could not get the idea out of her mind that it would be only too easy for the Elves to slip poison in their food or drink and take the schools for themselves, if they ever found a way to break the enchantments enslaving them.

Winter found it a relief when the food was ready and the three left the kitchens laden with food enough for the entire Slytherin House, for Winter had performed undetectable extension charms on all the packets and boxes that contained the food and so could fit a great deal of food in even the smallest box.

"I bet the Gryffindors aren't celebrating!"Daphne Greengrass remarked, helping herself to a slice of cake, which had been laid out on wide tables that were pushed under the windows of the Common Room," They lost three of their players!"

"Yeah, and three of their best players at that!" a Slytherin second year, Malcolm Baddock added," without Potter, they're going to be useless. Not that I'm saying Potter was a good player," he added hastily," but he did seem to have a lucky streak, from what I heard."

"Not in his third year," Pansy Parkinson said," that was when he lost to Hufflepuff!"

"What happened?" Another second year, Graham Pritchard asked eagerly.

"He fell off his broom," Pansy Parkinson replied, to great laughter from the Common Room.

"I heard about that," Hitomi told Winter and Anna as they sat at a table, eating," I heard there were Dementors guarding the school at time because everyone was really scared of Sirius Black and the Dementors came onto the pitch and that's how Potter fell off his broom."

"That's different from the story Pansy's telling," Winter remarked, listening to Pansy Parkinson's tale of how Harry Potter had been unable to see in the mist and had crashed into the goal posts.

"Her story is rather unbelievable," Anna commented," but definitely more entertaining."

The party got more raucous as time went on, for Anna and Hitomi had managed to get the elves to get hold of fire whisky as well as butter beer and there was a definite drunken tone to the sound of singing as Danny Murphy, who, although only a first years, had a voice to match the loudest seventh years, lead the group in a song that he had made up himself.

" _Potter is banned from Quidditch, I hear,_

 _So come on, Slytherins, let's hear you all cheer!_

 _Potter will fly in the skies, no more,_

 _Come on Slytherins, let's hear you roar!"_

 _Even the Beaters have been kicked out!_

 _Come on, Slytherin's let's hear you shout_!"

The song went on, and Anna and Hitomi joined in, with Hitomi fetching the magical fiddle that her mother had sent her. She played it like a normal fiddle, but the sound was louder and fuller than most fiddles as though there was more than one instrument playing. Hitomi was very artistic.

The party only ended late that night when Professor Snape entered the Common Room and said that, although he sympathised with their high spirits at Potter's misfortune, it was time for them to go to bed.

However, although Umbridge's decision to ban Harry Potter and the Weasley twins from Quidditch, caused a great deal of cheer for the Slytherins, it did not make her anymore popular amongst the first years, for their Defence Against the Dark Arts lessons were getting worse by the day, especially for Jack Shade, who was getting detention for things as trivial as not taking his book out fast enough and those who defended him would frequently suffer with him.

Winter's first experience of this was when Jack had had twenty points from Slytherin deducted when Umbridge had caught him looking at her and Jack had muttered," You were right," for Winter had warned him about Umbridge's hate of "Half breeds" and of how she wanted to expel him.

"What did you say to Miss Tempest?" Umbridge asked, glaring at him.

"Nothing, Professor," Jack mumbled, staring down at his desk.

"What did he say to you?" Umbridge had turned to Winter.

"He didn't say anything, Professor," Winter had replied, but Umbridge had not believed her.

"So, you defend this Half breed, do you?" She asked, glaring down at Winter, who had not replied.

"Detention, my office, this evening," Umbridge had said. Winter realised that all chances of staying in Umbridge's good books were lost, but she was not too concerned. She doubted very much that Umbridge would stay more than a year at the school, anyway. No other Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher had for many years, if the stories were to be believed.

Winter lounged back in her seat, holding her wand in her hand, which was covered by the sleeve of her robe.

"Opticalus Illusinum," she whispered, flicking her wand in a small, jerking motion. Umbridge did not notice the faint mist that swirled around her face and was breathed in through her mouth.

Winter waited for the charm, which produced unpredictable hallucinations, to take effect.

Everything was normal for the next five minutes as Winter managed to slip her wand back into her pocket and continue to read, before Umbridge began to scream.

"Nooo! Filthy half breeds! Get away from me!" She began to wave her arms wildly.

The class laughed aloud at this, especially Jack. Umbridge began to scream louder and sweat poured down her toad like face and her eyes, already bulging, began to look as if they were going to burst from their sockets. She was clearly terrified, but Winter felt nothing but contempt.

The spell began to wear off toward the end of the lesson and Umbridge collapsed onto the desk, unconscious, before sitting bolt upright. "I had the worst nightmare!" She muttered to herself, then noticed the rest of the class staring at her.

"Continue to read your books!" She snapped.

By the evening, Winter began to wish that the spell had lasted longer.

Winter arrived at Umbridge's office that evening, along with Jack Shade and they knocked on the door.

"Enter," came Umbridge's voice from inside the office.

Winter entered and was not surprised to see Harry Potter there. Harry Potter seemed to spend most of his time in detention with Umbridge, mostly because of his continued insistence that the Dark Lord had returned. Looking at the back of Harry's hand, Winter saw faint scratches that read, "I must not tell lies."

Harry looked coldly at Jack and Winter, noted Jack's vampiric appearance and then looked away from them.

"You know what to do, Mr Potter," Umbridge said," as do you Half-breed," she said to Jack.

"You," Umbridge turned to Winter," will take this quill," she handed Winter a sharp quill," and will write 'I must not lie for half breeds'"

Winter took the quill, knowing what would happen. She had heard stories from Jack and from others of what Umbridge's detentions were like. She knew that the words that she would write would be cut into her skin.

However, Winter had prepared beforehand and had taken a pain deadening potion. Unfortunately, she knew that a side effect of the potion was that she would bleed more easily. She hoped that Umbridge would not notice.

As Winter wrote the first letter, blood welled from the cut, staining her white hand crimson, but she felt no pain. When she had finished writing the sentence, blood had dripped over her hand and had stained the parchment, making her writing hard to read. However, the words in the back of her hand quickly faded and she wiped the back of her hand on her robes and then wrote again, all the while trying to think of a potion that would deaden pain and prevent bleeding at the same time.

"What's going on here?" Umbridge noticed Winter's scarlet hand.

"I have a blood disorder," Winter lied," I bleed a lot when I'm cut."

Umbridge looked as though she was not sure whether to believe her, then said," move over there. I don't want you getting blood on that doily. Carry on."

Winter moved, making sure to have a few drops of blood on the pink carpet.

Next to Winter, Umbridge was taunting Jack. "So, how does it feel to have to spill blood, Vampire?" She asked in a quiet, but still dangerous voice," Are you getting hungry at losing so much of your food."

Jack kept his gaze fixed hard on the parchment, but Winter could feel the anger coming from him.

" Just put up with it," Winter breathed," we'll get revenge, I promise."

Jack's mouth twitched in a small smile and he continued to write. Winter felt sorry for him, for being hated for simply being who he was. She herself had faced enough dislike coming from such a mistrusted, unpopular family, but she knew that what Jack faced was worse. He was not simply considered untrustworthy or dangerous, he was considered evil- at least by some.

It was hours later that the three were released. Harry hurried away, presumably to Gryffindor Tower, without looking back at them and Jack and Winter headed toward the dungeons, walking more slowly as they discussed plans for revenge on Umbridge.

"I want it to be something big," Jack said, shaking with anger," I want her to hurt! Like what happened in class today!"

He turned to Winter," Do you know who caused Umbridge to start acting like that?"

Winter shrugged," She probably just had a nightmare."

"She's rather unlucky in our class," Jack commented," first the Elves apparently put something on her clothes, then her pink ribbon turns blue and then someone leaves super glue on her seat."

"Yeah, she is rather unlucky," Winter commented. She had not been responsible for the last prank, which had been Danny Murphy's doing. Danny had a rather slapstick sense of humour.

"We should lock her in her office," Jack said, thinking of possible ideas of revenge," it's not as dramatic as I'd hope, but at least I would go one lesson without getting a detention." He sighed and looked down at his hand, on which the words "I am a filthy half breed," were cut.

"We could humiliate her at breakfast," Winter suggested," in front of the entire school."

"How?" Jack asked and Winter shrugged.

"I'm sure we could think of something," she replied," maybe we can talk to Danny. He's great when it comes to humiliating people."

Although the time was late when Jack and Winter arrived in the Common Room, several Slytherins, including Danny, Anna and Hitomi were still awake. Anna and Danny were practicing casting curses on each other, while Hitomi was reading a fashion magazine.

Winter and Jack lost no time in telling the others what had happened. However, they had to speak in low voices, for they knew that several Slytherins, including Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson, were close to Umbridge and would not hesitate to report them to Umbridge if he found out what they were planning.

The next day, Winter and Anna headed down to breakfast with the rest of the school and waited for Umbridge to appear.

"One, two," Winter muttered to Hitomi, her wand in her lap, pointed in Umbridge's direction," three. Wingardium Leviosa."

Winter and Hitomi, who were the best at charms, lifted Umbridge's seat high into the air, while Danny, Jack and Anna made sure to move so as to conceal Winter and Hitomi's wands from as many sides as possible.

Umbridge screamed and clung to her seat, which had risen high above the tables and was gliding steadily over the Great Hall.

"Put me down!" Umbridge shrieked," Put me down now, I say!" Her seat gave a dangerous wobble at this.

All the students were hysterical with laughter, including Hitomi. Winter, who was never prone to hysterics, simply chuckled, knowing that to do anything else would give her away.

At the doors to the Great Hall, the chair began to lower toward the ground and then fell hard with a loud thump.

The rest of the school was in an uproar and even the staff seemed stunned. Dumbledore, who had stood up, seemed rather angry.

"This will be reported!" Umbridge had got to her feet and was standing shakily, her hair a mess and her bow askew," make no mistake! Cornelius Fudge will hear about this. You will be considered unfit to lead this school, Dumbledore!"

Winter could now understand why Dumbledore was angry.

However, she, Hitomi, Anna, Danny and Jack were too busy laughing to care.

"Feel better, now?" Winter asked Jack, who nodded, tears in his eyes.

A crack from the end of Dumbledore's wand caused the entire Hall to fall silent.

"Every student will be questioned," he said quietly," until it is discovered who is responsible and whoever is will be expelled." He looked deadly serious.

"We'd better start practicing Occlumency," Winter muttered. She felt rather annoyed with Dumbledore. She had found out through her spying that Harry Potter, his favourite pupil, had formed an illegal group which learnt defensive spells, but she was prepared to bet that Dumbledore would not let Harry Potter be expelled.


End file.
